In many contexts, including construction, mining, and industrial settings, heavy wear on equipment and/or machine components is an unavoidable reality. To extend the useful life of these components, they may be produced from hardwearing or wear-resistant materials. These hardwearing materials exhibit specific properties that enable them to withstand one or more forms of wear, including but not limited to, abrasion, stress, impact, fatigue, and corrosion.
Research and development surrounding the production of hardwearing materials has been steadily gaining in popularity for many years as new applications for the materials are found. Such materials are commonly incorporated into industrial and/or construction equipment, including composite hammers, liners, jaw plates, bucket teeth, helical blades, mixers, shovels, and pavers, just to name a few examples. Hardwearing materials have also been implemented in the context of composite pipes and roll machinery parts. Moreover, with the continual improvement and optimization of processes for producing these wear-resistant materials, they will only gain in popularity and be used in other contexts.
In fact, industry participants anticipate that the hardwearing materials market will grow steadily over the next decade and beyond. This growth will be propelled by the world's ever-rising population and the corresponding need for infrastructure, which will result in higher demand for energy, railways, highways, transportation, housing, etc. Consequently, there will be a great need for construction and industrial equipment and components comprising hardwearing materials. For example, in 2009 alone, more than 15 million tons of wear-resistant material was used to produce excavator bucket teeth and more than 16 million tons of wear-resistant material was used for trash pump parts and piping.
Nonetheless, currently available hardwearing materials fail to exhibit satisfactory wear-resistant properties, particularly when subjected to harsh environments. When wearing parts fail or are in need of replacement, entire production lines may be shut down and/or equipment may be taken out of use. Thus, not only are losses incurred due to the direct cost of replacing the parts, but the loss resulting from reduced productivity or downtime can be significant.
Wear-resistant properties, lifetime, and price are the three main criteria used in the assessment and selection of hardwearing materials and corresponding hardwearing components. As demands for these hardwearing components increases and manufacturing technology improves, the desire for lower cost, longer lasting, and more wear-resistant materials will continue to grow.
Accordingly, systems and methods could benefit from improved devices and techniques for developing hardwearing materials and manufacturing hardwearing components. In particular, improved techniques and materials are needed to meet the demands of today's economy, including the need for lower-cost, longer-lasting, and/or more wear-resistant materials, components, and equipment.